Civilian deaths rock campaign

The killing of at least nine civilians at three checkpoints - by United States marines facing the threat of terrorist attacks - has severely damaged the allies' battle for Iraqi "hearts and minds".

And 15 members of a family killed yesterday when their utility truck was blown apart by a rocket from an Apache helicopter near Hilla, south of Baghdad, added to the toll of civilian to die at the hands of coalition forces, while a hospital director in Hilla said 33 civilians had been killed in bombing raids yesterday.

The family hit by the rocket was fleeing fighting between Iraqi forces and the US-led coalition in Nasiriyah, 350km south of Baghdad, when the US helicopter fired on the jeep in Haidariya at 6pm (0100 AEST), the sole survivor said.

Razek al-Kazem al-Khafaj showed an AFP photographer the coffins he said held the bodies of his wife, his six children, his father, mother and three brothers and their wives.

"Which one of them should I cry on?" Khafaj said, before throwing sand in his face "so I don't have to see" the remains of his 15 relatives before him.");document.write("

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A hospital director in Hilla, about 80km south of Baghdad, said 33 civilians, including children, were killed and 310 wounded in coalition bombing yesterday morning of the Nader residential area on the southern outskirts of the farming town.

US marines, meanwhile, captured a key canal bridge near Hilla today in their drive toward Baghdad, their officers said. An AFP correspondent travelling with the troops said they were backed by artillery and two B-52 heavy bombers.

Coalition troops have been instructed to assume the worst and to use tougher tactics to weed out militia guerillas.

The US military is investigating the killing by soldiers of at least seven women and children near Karbala, in central Iraq, when a four-wheel-drive carrying up to 15 people allegedly failed to stop at a checkpoint.

Nearby, a man died while his wife watched as soldiers fired on their car at another checkpoint.

In another checkpoint shooting yesterday, US marines killed an unarmed Iraqi south of Baghdad. The troops said they fired on a utility that sped towards them outside the southern town of Shatra, killing the driver and injuring his passenger. "I thought it was a suicide bomb," said one marine who opened fire.

Troops have been on edge after a suicide car-bomb attack at a checkpoint on Saturday killed four US soldiers. The next day, journalists with the 3rd Infantry Division reported that the rules of engagement appeared to have changed at checkpoints.

The New York Times reported one commander, Lieutenant Colonel Scott Rutter, as saying: "They have five seconds to turn around and get out of here. If they're there in five seconds, they're dead."

Yesterday, US defence officials insisted that the rules had not changed - rather, the existing ones had been tightened.

But they said cars and trucks would no longer be permitted to cross through US and British convoys, and any vehicle blocking traffic would be rolled over.

As well, if civilians with hands in their pockets approached troops and failed to respond, first to a shouted command and then to a warning shot, they would be killed.

"Everyone is now seen as a combatant until proven otherwise," a Pentagon official said.

Asked about the checkpoint deaths, the Australia Defence Force Chief, General Peter Cosgrove, said there was no acceptable level of civilian casualties and "you deplore and regret every one and you do your utmost to minimise it".

But he blamed the deaths on the terrorist tactics of some Iraqis. "When you have people who are deliberately using the population as part of the shield and protection for their violent acts, then there will be mistakes."

US officials defended the tougher measures as necessary when Iraqi paramilitaries have been disguising themselves as villagers, staging suicide attacks, feigning surrender and coercing others into fighting.

US central command in Qatar said soldiers from the 3rd Infantry Division had "exercised considerable restraint" when the driver failed to stop at the Karbala checkpoint.

They had called on the driver to stop and firing warning shots. "As a last resort, the soldier fired into the passenger compartment of the vehicle," officials said.

The commander of the 3rd Infantry Division, Major-General Buford Blount, apologised for the tragedy, saying: "We're very concerned about it and very sorry that it happened."

US forces have begun house-to-house searches for paramilitary hide-outs and are conducting commando raids and air strikes to pick off senior military and political leaders.

Drone aircraft are being used to spot civilian convoys in which paramilitary members might be travelling, as strike aircraft circle ready to attack.

The Iraqi Government claims that nearly 600 civilians have been killed, and thousands injured. Reports from journalists with units on the ground refer repeatedly to Iraqis being killed in crossfire or by coalition forces while shielding paramilitaries.

The US President, George Bush, is persisting with the message that the coalition is liberating the Iraqi people. "We are coming with a mighty force to end the reign of your oppressors," he said on Monday. "We are coming and we will not stop. We will not relent until your country is free."

However, the bombing of Baghdad and Basra and house-to-house combat in towns along the road to the capital is inflaming public opinion across the Arab world.

The US Secretary of State, Colin Powell, is repeatedly being asked by Middle East reporters if the US is rapidly losing the battle for the "hearts and minds".

Mr Powell said he hoped that once coalition forces were "able to break the back of Iraqi resistance", the Iraqi people would understand "that the United States and its coalition partners have come in peace".

But with the pressure to push on to Baghdad, military officials warn that civilian casualties are likely to rise.

Last night, the Iraqi Information Minister, Mohammed Saeed al-Sahaf, claimed US warplanes had attacked two buses bringing American and European "human shields" to Baghdad from Jordan, wounding many.